Eschensil
The old elf winced as he climbed the stone steps, hewn from the bare rock of the mountainside. The craggy trees whispered in the night wind as he passed, and the only other sound was the echo of pebbles falling below as he climbed. The summit was worn smooth by wind and winter frost, and the old runes that were etched into the rock had faded, or filled with moss and weeds. The moon shone bright on the carved circle, and the elf sat in the middle, wrapping his heavy cloak around himself to calm his chattering teeth. He sat in silence, looking over the valley, then up to the full moon glowing bright in the darkness. He'amarth, look upon me. See my creased skin, my wizened flesh. Look upon my mortality and pity me. For decades I have climbed this stone to gaze upwards, to glimpse the merest sight of Eschensil. For decades I have sought my ancestral home. I am old now, too weak in magic to make the journey, and too weak in body to continue coming here. I beg you, before I go, give me one glimpse. Let me see where my people came from. Let me go home. The air around him shimmered and changed, and he laughed with joy as the landscape shifted and blurred, settling into a vista of waterfalls and peaks, shrouded in mists of glowing hues and dancing lights. The stone circle he sat on was just as worn, the runes just as old, but around him was a different world, broken but alive, unremembered, but familiar. Eschensil is one of the planes that has been tethered to Tolas, the Material Realm. Originally the home of the goddess Valheria, as well as the elves, Eschensil changed irreparably upon the death of its ruler, unleashing chaotic energies across the plane, and forcing its denizens to flee or mutate. For mortals on Tolas, the plane's influence is felt through the Silver Veil, a gateway to the plane opened by the ancient elves. Its omnipresence in the night sky has made the plane one of the most influential on Tolas, in substance, but also in art, story and culture. History Much of the history of Eschensil is kept by the elves in song and myth, with a large collection collated together into Beyond the Veil, a work of considerable effort composed by generations of Telinorian Cultural Considerers. The Plane of Harmony Valheria traversed the planes, collecting Outsiders and Mortals alike and returning them to Eschensil and caring for them together, isolating some while letting others mix and interact, all in the pursuit of attaining harmony and order. Her skill at binding was unparalleled, and the magical wards she used to maintain peace on her plane were unbreakable. To aid her in her task, she created the immortal elves, who worshiped and served her for millennia. The power held within Eschensil, either in her servants, or the plane's many inhabitants, was immense. Despite the risks these beings posed, Valheria never exiled or any of her charges nor condemned any to destruction, but strove ceaselessly to create a place where balance was maintained. In pursuit her task, she chose to tether Eschensil to the Material Realm by means of a Planar Anchor, anchoring it so close that the borders of the two planes intersected, an action that would spell doom on the goddess, her realm and its denizens. Doom of the Goddess The Material Plane proved poisonous to the Realm of Order. Over time its chaos, amplified by the Dawn War, seeped into Eschensil. The great magical wards began to buckle and fail, letting Valheria's charges roam free. Some fought each other to extinction, others saw their portions of the realm shrivel and die as their protections failed. For many however, the simple act of encounter proved fatal or worse, as the wild energies within the plane, contained for so long, lashed out, changing and mutating all they mingled with. Those who Valheria had taken from Tolas proved worst affected, but most resilient, becoming monstrous mirrors of their former selves, and descending to roaming and marauding for survival. Many tried to flee to the material plane to escape their doom, arriving as monsters or mutants to their former homes. As her great work unraveled around her, Valheria too began to succumb to the poison of chaos. When she perished, the very structure of the plane was sundered, and whole areas dissipated out of reality, spinning off into the void or becoming demi-planes tenuously linked to Eschensil or other nearby planes. Flight of the Elves During the chaos of her death, the Elves searched fruitlessly for a way to revive their Goddess. Eventually, the unraveling of their mistress' plane proved too great a tragedy to bear. Unable to maintain her wards, they combined their efforts to open a great portal to the Material Plane, rending open the night sky and bathing Tolas in the silver light of the first Full Moon. The Elves descended, scattering across the world. Bewildered by their strange surroundings and separated by their journey, the elves formed tribes and groups that sought to uphold their dead Goddess's remit. As their great powers of preservation and binding failed, so too did their immortality, which waned as they wandered the new world. Solonar took pity upon the dispossessed elves and offered some of them a place in the Enclave, preserving their immortality if they pledged to protect the realms of nature. Description For information on the powers of Eschensil and how they interact with Tolas, see here. The plane of Eschensil is extremely dangerous to travelers due to its unpredictability and the power of its inhabitants. Its geography varies wildly, some parts a wasteland of silver grass and silence, others alive with alien flora and fauna. Those that remained on Eschensil now rule over it. Enclosures In order to separate and organise the creatures in her plane; Valheria subdivided Eschensil into dozens of smaller realms, isolated by magics strong enough as to be almost demi-planes. This structure was supported by grand Archtrees, from which the realms grew off like branches. The greatest of these was the Silver Tree, which exists in some form in each realm. It appears as a great tower of branches and wood stretching up into the sky with it's leaves blending into the Veil itself. It is guarded by the Archfey Gyoubu. Fey Magic Since the death of Valheria, the rules that shackled the flow of time to a regular motion have loosened, with visitors finding themselves unable to account for missing moments, or being separated from travelling companions for mere minutes, but to others hours had gone by. With such weakened bonds over the fabric of the plane, the de facto rulers, the Archfey, are able to manipulate the flow of time and space to misdirect or confuse travelers, even turning a single day spent in Eschensil into a month, or even a year. Those not connected to Eschensil, such as humans or halflings, might find their memories of their experiences within Eschensil hazy or even lost. The Black Cities The grand domains of where the first elves lived under their goddess, now serve as monuments to the empire that once dominated the plane. When the barriers between enclosures began to break down, the empty cities were quickly seized by rampaging fiends. The fiends have continued to dominate these lands, known to the fey thereafter as 'Black Cities'. It is from these fortresses that the fiends launch raids and attacks. Denizens The denizens of Eschensil are many and varied, perhaps even more so than the mortal realm. In the time before her death, Valheria brought countless varieties of life into her realm. Some, in order to protect and nurture, others in an effort to tame and transform. Fey He'amarth Known in legend as The Last Elf, He'amarth was the last truly immortal elf among the denizens of the Eschensil. As the other elves left their once glorious homeland, He'amarth remained behind, vowing to still tend to the plane as its protector. He used old magic, ways that would be considered unclean by modern mages such as those of Telinor. To Tolas elves, He'amarth is nothing more than a legend, with the word now meaning a lunar eclipse. Gyoubu Gyoubu is an Archfey of Eschensil who takes the form of a gargantuan white snake. It guards the Silver Tree, one of the few wards of Valheria to survive her death. It appears as a great tower of branches and wood stretching up into the sky with it's leaves blending into the sky itself. Fiends The fiends brought to Eschensil were the fastest to take advantage of the goddess' death and spread throughout the plane, seizing the vacated realms of the immortal elves. The fiends of Eschensil differ from those they descend from, having adapted to their surroundings. Some have grown to be vastly outsized while others have adapted fey-like attributes, such as skin of bark or thorny appendages. These changes have proven to be skin-deep, for the fiends of Eschensil are no less cruel than their counterparts in the Hells and the Abyss. Category:Plane Category:Feywild Category:Valheria